Krypton was a planet located approximately 27.1 light-years from Earth. Primarily known for being the home of the Kryptonian race, the Kryptonian civilization's history spanned over 100,000 years of relative Earth time and consisted of two periods: One of interstellar travel and interplanetary discovery, and one of harvesting planetary resources to maintain their civilization; a choice that would lead to the planet's destruction.

Contents

Krypton was formed 8.7 billion years ago, with the development of both unicellular and multi-cellular life leading to the creation and subsequent evolution of mammalian-like sapient beings known as Kryptonians.

As time passed, civilization flourished and technology became more advanced, resulting in an age of expansion. In an attempt to spread themselves across space, Kryptonians used scout ships to establish colonial outposts and World Engines to terraform the environments of other planets to their needs.

Dev-Em, a member of the terraforming project, became the first murderer in over a millennium. Despite being found guilty, he was freed and stowed away on a scout ship captained by Kara Zor-El, who was romantically involved with Kell-Ur, the man he murdered.

At some point, for unknown reasons, the Kryptonians suddenly abandoned the colonial outposts, brought an end to the space exploration program, and artificially engineered all children for predetermined roles in society. As a result, the planet's natural resources were exhausted and the core became extremely unstable.

After realizing that Krypton was facing imminent destruction, the scientist Jor-El confided in his friend Dru-Zod, unaware that the latter had founded the Sword of Rao and became determined to purge the "degenerate bloodlines" that undermined the planet's development.

Jor-El went before the Law Council and asked for control over the Codex as Zod and his followers stormed the Legislation Chamber. In the chaos that followed, Ro-Zar was killed and Jor-El was captured. The latter, however, managed to escape with the Codex and make his way back home, where he infused the Codex into the cells of his his newborn son Kal-El and placed the child in a starcraft moments before Zod's forces arrived. Jor-El and Zod engaged in a fierce duel, which resulted in the former's death, as Jor-El's wife Lara Lor-Van launched the starcraft into space.

The destruction of Krypton

Zod and his surviving followers were arrested and sentenced to 300 cycles of somatic reconditioning in the Phantom Zone. Shortly after, Krypton's unstable core gave way and imploded.

Krypton was a spheroid terrestrial planet with a solid planetary surface. Its landscape was once heavily filled with mountain ranges, but became a barren wasteland after decades of strip mining and exhausting natural resources. Jor-El, however, created artificial grass and bedded it into a mountain near the House of El Citadel, where he kept a variety of wildlife such as Rondor beasts.

Krypton once had an unknown number of cities, but this number quickly diminished and Kandor eventually became the only remaining city.